So instead eating sweets, sip along with one of these 13 classic flicks and get your heart pulsing this Halloween. Submitted for your approval: Scary good horror movie wine pairings to consume in-between all your candy dispensing.

13 Classic Horror Movie Wine Pairings

Carrie – Uruguay Tannat

It’s a little shy, a little awkward compared to other well-known wine regions. But trust us, this Tannat is bigger and badder than everyone’s favorite cheerleader. (Better watch yourself Cabernet.)

What Wines to Pair with Soup?

because you don’t already have enough liquid in you.

There are a lot articles out there talking about the challenges of pairing soup with wine. Yes, the last thing you need when you’re working on a nice soup belly is more liquid. And, the interplay of broths, bases, and ingredients can leave even a seasoned gourmand stumped.

But you know what? Pairing soup and wine doesn’t have to be so hard. In fact, it’s actually pretty simple if you apply the basic concepts of food and wine pairing. We, over here at Wine Folly, talked it over and came up with the soups we’re hot on this season and the wines we’d drink with them. Read on. (But not with an empty stomach.)

Why? The dusty, leathery Tempranillo wines from Spain offer enough spice and meatiness to work as a congruent pairing with the dish, and when served alongside, the chili will actually make the wine taste a little more fruity (kind of like cherries and figs). There were many great recent vintages in Spain, so you’re pretty safe here, except for the 2012 and 2013 vintages (which were “meh”).

Chili Wine Pairing Alternative: Bubbles! Believe it or not, a bottle of Brut Cava is surprisingly great. The acidity, effervescence, and bitter backbone mesh with the scant cheddar cheese sprinkled on top (if you do so), and make the whole taste engagement more creamy. It’s like having sour cream, minus the sour cream.

Yes, the Wine Glass DOES Make a Difference!

The Type of Wine Glass Majorly Affects the Taste of Your Wine!

We tested two wine glasses, both designed for Cabernet Sauvignon, that offered surprisingly different results. Find out which characteristics to pay attention to when looking for your perfect wine glass.

4:28

See Madeline Puckette identify the differences while testing two Cabernet Sauvignon wine glasses.

Upon first glance, the wine glasses don’t seem to be that different. Both are stemmed, crystal wine glasses designed for Cabernet-based wines and manufactured by Riedel. However, the differences between these two glasses are enough to change our perception of how a wine tastes.

Why Two Glasses for Cabernet?

Links go to Riedel’s Amazon product page and linking helps support this site.

Ultimately, the “Extreme” glass offered more fruity and floral aromas and tasted spicier. Whereas, the “Bordeaux” glass softened the acidity in the wine and made it taste more chocolatey, but with less fruitiness and more herbal tones. The reason for the differences has everything to do with the shape of the glass.

The Bordeaux Glass

There were two major features in this glass that affected the perception of wine: the opening and the bowl shape.

Larger Opening: The larger rim opening caused the wine to hit your palate all at once. It had the effect of softening the spiciness (aka acidity) of the wine, making it taste more monolithic. Because of this, it tasted more chocolatey, smoother and also less fruity. Additionally, the tannins hit in several places on the tongue but were overall slightly less intense. On the downside, the flavor didn’t persist as long on the palate.

Less Round Bowl: We suspect that with the less-round bowl shape, the aromas in the wine were dissipating and becoming less intense as they entered the nose. Because of this, the wine smelled less intense and less fruity. Interestingly enough, the floral notes were also less present in this glass, lending to more herbal aromas.

Conclusion: This seems to be a great glass for drinking Cabernet, but not so much for sniffing it. I imagine it would work well on more value-driven wines too, if you want to keep things smooth and easy. The downside of this glass however, is that the aromas were much more muted than with the other glass. Interestingly enough, after this test, we tasted a 2012 Bordeaux from St. Julien with this glass and were surprised at how well it tasted. Perhaps this is great choice for bold, European reds.

There were two major features in this glass that affected the perception of wine: the opening and the bowl shape.

Smaller Opening: The larger rim opening caused the wine to hit your mouth in one centralized place and expand out as you tasted it. This caused the wine to taste slightly more acidic (which could be good or bad, depending on how you look at it) and it also made the taste persist longer in the mouth. The tannins were also more centered towards the front of the tongue and slightly stronger.

More Round Bowl: The more rounded bowl shape did a lot to collect and focus the aromas in the glass and funnel them into your nose. The wine smelled much more intense, more fruity and also more floral. There were very little chocolatey aromas.

Conclusion: This seems to be a great glass for sniffing Cabernet, and also for pairing Cabernet with food (given the raised perception of acidity). That said, it made wines more complex and in some cases, could make them more challenging to drink. This glass seemed to be more “honest” in that it really showed and championed the fruit and flower aromas in the wine.

Choosing Wine Glasses

The Secret to Finding Great (Value) Wine!

It doesn’t matter if we ride a bus or drive a Porsche, we all want good deals on great tasting wines. The only problem with this simple desire is that wine is a limited resource and it’s constantly changing, so it’s easy to get stuck in a wine-buying rut and become disappointed. So, the question is:

How does one adapt quickly to the ever-changing wine market?

Wine is the semi-ironic poster child of “nothing stays the same.”

We would, of course, recommend that you subscribe to Wine Folly and let us help you find out about where to look for wines and how to greater develop your palate. But honestly, if you’re a smart shopper, all you really need to know is: undervalued wine regions, undervalued grapes, and highly productive vintages are where to look for awesome wines at great values.